The Sand Castle Movie Review: There are countless films and series with castaways and desert islands in circulation, which is why a film like The Sand Castle, available on Netflix from January 25, 2025, certainly did not start out as a favorite. Yet Matty Brown's film, here at his first work after having directed several and highly decorated short films, finds a way to attract the attention and interest of the viewer with a story that changes skin and registers along the way until the final revelation.
Which does not allow the user to take measures and create expectations concerning the evolutionary trajectories of the story and the characters that animate it. This is thanks to a screenplay, co-written by Hend Fakhroo, Yassmina Karajah and the director himself, which uses genetic mutation as the modus operandi to make developments and conclusions unpredictable.
On the other hand, the narrative and dramaturgical material, as well as the plots with which it is woven, take on overly cerebral contours that escape a bit from the authors of the script and by extension from its transposition. The outcome, the fact that it is only partially successful, therefore depends on these ups and downs of lucidity in the choices and in the discontinuity in the way of making them operational and functional to the story. It is therefore all a question of balance that is lacking between positive and negative notes, with the latter prevailing over the former, influencing the fate of the film.
The Sand Castle Movie Analysis:
The Sand Castle revolves around a seemingly bourgeois family, composed of Yasmine and Nabil and their two children, Adam and Jana, lost on a desert island. As a home, they have comfortably adapted an old and colorful lighthouse that towers over the southern peak of the heavenly strip of land and every day they try to get in touch with the outside world through an old radio transmitter, confident that the light of their temporary refuge can do the rest.
The problem is that they seem to have been there for several days now and no one has yet come to rescue them. Furthermore, it is not known, except in the Cesarini zone, what unfortunate events have brought them to an earthly paradise destined to transform, with the passing of the minutes, into a hell in the middle of the sea.
And it is here that the waltz of genres takes place, on which the narrative architecture of a chameleon-like film is based, taking on different guises along the timeline before assuming its definitive form. Thus, we move from family drama to the classic survivor movie, from the supernatural in which the uncanny takes shape with an alien force that alters the nature of what is known to horror with and without presence, before leaving the baton to metaphor once and for all.
The aesthetic-formal packaging and the performances, starting with that of Nadine Labaki, are the strong points of the film
Everything takes shape and substance on the screen thanks to the work in front of and behind the camera. In front of it, four interpreters give body and intensity to the changing emotions of their respective characters. Among these, the most high-sounding name in the cast available to Brown stands out, namely Nadine Labaki.
The Lebanese actress and director put all her immense talent and stage presence at the service of the work and the figure of the mother entrusted to her, offering the audience another extraordinary and moving interpretation capable of leaving its mark as it did in its time for Caramel or Capernaum - Chaos and Miracles. She is the terminal of an acting that allows the film to touch different chords.
The rest is taken care of by the packaging that shows off great formal care and notable directorial experimentation. The American filmmaker, with the complicity of the director of photography Jeremy Snell, brings to the screen a series of shots and technical solutions with a strong visual impact that allow the images to attract the viewer's eye.
The Sand Castle: evaluation and conclusion
The first work by Matty Brown, known among industry insiders for his long apprenticeship on short distances, is characterized by a series of ups and downs that make it discontinuous. The main culprit is a screenplay that on the one hand proposes an interesting and unpredictable genetic mutation that travels between the earthly, the supernatural and the metaphorical, on the other hand, the lack of balance and the artificial mechanics that accompany the passages of tone and genres weakens its effectiveness.
However, the excellent direction, the formal care and the photographic impact of the images take care of allowing The Sand Castle to keep the viewer close, to whom the film also gives another great performance by an extraordinary and intense Nadine Labaki.